****
"Stupid thing! Does she have two heads and you have one?! Huh?!", the older woman lashed out at the girl who laid quiet on the floor.
"Answer me!! Does she have two heads that she came in first and you came second?!!", she asked the girl in rage.
The girl remained silent on the floor.
"Answer me!", the woman demanded but the girl remained quiet.
On seeing the defiant attitude of the girl, the woman became enraged and started using the whip in her hand on the girl. Hitting her wherever not minding the place.
"Answer me! Answer me! Answer me!", she yelled as she hit her all over.
The girl writhed in pain but remained mute, not a single sound or cry came out of her.
When the woman had hit her to her satisfaction she stopped and looked at the girl and said, "Answer me! Does she have two heads?"
The girl slowly raised her head and looked at the woman, her eyes were red yet not a single tear was on her face.
"No, mother", she answered in a cold voice.
Hate and anger filled her eyes.
****
Tiana's POV
"Thanks", I said to Steph as her car pulled up in front of my house.
"No problem", she replied. "But seriously though when is your mom going to return your keys?", she asked curiously.
"Honestly, I don't know. Whenever she feels like it, I guess", I replied.
"Oh", was all I heard Steph reply and I smiled at her.
"See you tomorrow?", I said as I made to get off.
"Yeah sure"
"Bye"
"Bye", I waved at her as she drove away.
I stared at her car for a while before sighing. I turned and walked up to my house. I saw a familiar car parked in the driveway, she was home. I glanced at the car and headed up to the front door. I took a deep breath before opening the door.
"I'm home", I said weakly not shouting like most kids did when they got home for two reasons;
One, she didn't like it.
Two, the reason other kids yelled to announce their presence when they got home was because they were happy and excited about being home, Ion the other hand, not so much.
"You're late", a voice said and I shivered. I turned and saw her, my mom standing at the passage. I put my shoes away and looked at the time, it was 6:15pm, my curfew was 6:00pm, meaning I was 15 minutes late. I gulped and looked at her shuddering.
"I'm sorry, Steph finished late", I said trying to explain myself.
"Steph?", she glared at me.
"Stephanie", I immediately corrected myself.
She didn't like it whenever I called people shortened names or when I was mentioning someone for the first time and I don't call thier name and family name. I gulped waiting for her to hit me or yell at me but that didn't happen. She looked me over before walking into the living room. I guess, she was in a good mood. I followed after her immediately.
She sat down on one of the couches before asking,
"Any assignment grades?"
I cringed.
No 'How was your day?', 'How was school?', 'Are you hungry?'.
No, all she cared about were my grades.
"Yes", I replied.
She lifted her eyes to look at me as if saying, 'Go on'.
"Algebra test. I got an A+", I continued.
She nodded and asked
"Who had the highest mark?"
There it was, the question I was waiting for. It didn't matter to her if I had gotten a high grade or not, she always had to make sure I was on top. Whenever someone else bested me, she would yell at me or maybe hit me but when I was on top, then she would smile at me and look at me a little warmly.
I sighed inwardly before answering,
"I did".
And just as I expected she smiled. I cringed again.
"Ok", she replied as she got up from the couch and headed upstairs towards her room. I sighed in relief and headed up the stairs too, heading to my room.
I opened my room and carefully dropped my bag on the chair before laying on my bed. I massaged my head. I had a splitting headache already. I sighed and thought back about how my day went. After my conversation with the new boy right after Biology class everything was pretty much normal. I didn't run into him again and we didn't have any classes together. Which was a good thing for me. The conversation flashed in my head. I sighed and turned on my bed. I don't know why but there was something about the way he stared at me. It almost felt like he was staring deep in my soul with that piercing gaze of his, like he could see right through me and that unsettled me. I shook my head and got up. 'Stop thinking about it', I scolded myself and walked towards the bathroom. After I got out of the bathroom, I walked to my study table and picked up my phone. I noticed two new notifications on the screen. I opened them and they were messages; one was from Grace apologizing for earlier today and the other was from Sky.
I replied Grace first also apologizing for yelling at her earlier and walking out like that. She replied saying it was ok and I sent her a good night sticker. I opened Sky's message chat and there was just one message;
'How was school today?'
I smiled. I checked and seeing that he was still online, I quickly replied,
'Twas cool', after some thought I sent,
'I missed you though🥺'
'Awwwn, sorry bby. I missed you too🥺', he replied, my smile widened as I laid down on my bed.
'Did anything happen at school though?'
I read his message and I knew Romeo must have told him what happened at the canteen but I loved that he still asked me about things like this so it didn't seem like he was keeping surveillance on me.
'Nothing I couldn't handle', I replied and sent a winking emoticon,
'😉'
'Of course after all you are my DNA😏', he replied. I smiled again when I read the last part of his text.
To Sky I was kind of his daughter because we were so much a like, in the way we viewed things and handled certain things. He understood me best. I was his 'mini me' and as such he loved calling me his DNA. I looked at my nickname on our chat and laughed lightly. My nickname was, 'Dnaprideminime'. He had set the nickname himself.
'Obviously😌', I replied and he sent a laughing emoticon.
I looked at the time, I had better start studying before she came in here and caught me on my phone, so I hurriedly sent him a good night and went offline. I set my phone down far away from me and sat at my study table. I quickly opened some books and picked up my pen. No sooner had I picked up my pen, when the door opened startling me, but I composed myself. My mom peered through the door and after she seemed satisfied with what she saw me doing, she closed door and headed downstairs saying she'd bring snacks. I breathed a sigh of relief and put the books on the desk away before searching for my assignments. I started working on my assignments. My mom came up soon after and set a tray of snacks on the desk. I thanked her and she stood beside me for a while, surveying my work before finally leaving. I took a cracker from the tray and put it in my mouth. I wasn't hungry, but I just needed to chew something. I had this habit sometimes whenever I was studying or mostly working on Math problems I liked having something to chew. I didn't have gum, mom hated them and she especially hated that I had the habit of chewing them while studying, she said it was a distraction so I had to make do with crackers. If she learnt that I was eating while studying, she would definitely have a fit but I had no choice I really needed to chew something in order to focus better. From my study desk in my room, I could faintly make out a knock on the main door. That was strange, we rarely ever had visitors. Mom didn't like having friends, she had acquaintances from work, but friends? no. At least that's what she always said. And the neighbors here always mostly minded thier business; one of the reasons she really liked this place. So would be knocking at this time? I got up from my study table and walked over to the window. Lifting up the curtains slightly, I peered into the driveway and I saw an all too familiar white car, my heart skipped a beat.
"Tiana...", I heard mom call. "Your dad is here."